[peterarmstrong]

No. You discuss it with your manager, and you do it at the appropriate time. Having both created, refactored and deleted lots of technical debt over the past 25 years, trust me: you just don't get to go rogue because "you're the engineer". If you do that, it might turn into "you were the engineer".

What if you spend a week or month refactoring something that needs a quick fix now and is being deleted in 1-2 years? That's waste, and if you went rogue, it's your fault. Besides, you always create added QA burden with large refactoring (yes even if you have tests), and you should not do that without a discussion first--even if you're the founder.

Communicate with your manager and (if they agree) VP if needed, and do the right thing at the right time.

[cwalv]

> No. You discuss it with your manager, and you do it at the appropriate time.

Sure, if you're not sure if it's the right thing to do, talk to your manager or TL. A good engineering manager can help. If your manager "would never allow" it, they're not a good manager. Even for jobs much more menial than engineering, a good manager recognizes that autonomy/trust are critical for satisfaction and growth.

If you're working someplace where you're "not allowed" to make the changes you "wish you could," you're doing yourself a disservice. Find someplace where you're not only "allowed," but expected to have (or develop) the judgement required to make these decisions.

To be clear: "the business" expects (and in the medium/long term requires) engineers to make these decisions themselves. That is the job

[aleph_minus_one]

> If you do that, it might turn into "you were the engineer".

The correct solution would of course rather be "you were the manager". :-(